Cosentino closed 2017 Fiscal Year with record figures

22 febrero, 2018

Cosentino Group sets more records in 2017 with €901 million in revenue, €128 million in EBITDA and €57 million in net profit. The Group continues to strengthen its economic and financial position as well as its commitment to sustainable growth based on innovation, new technologies and efficient management.

22.02.2018 The company closed Fiscal Year 2017 with consolidated revenue of €901 million, representing an increase of more than 8% on 2016, a figure negatively impacted by the depreciation of sales income against the euro. In comparable terms (using a regularised exchange rate), this figure was 10%, highlighting strong growth in certain markets, including Europe (+20%) and Spain/Portugal (+12%).

In terms of operating results, the Company’s EBITDA last fiscal year totalled €128 million, or an increase of 10%. Changes in the exchange rate had a strong negative impact on this figure; relatively speaking, this effect was even more pronounced here than for the sales figures mentioned above. With regularised figures, the relative growth on 2016 was 19%. This increase in profitability was caused by the absorption of fixed costs, which led to an increase in consolidated revenue (+10%).

The accounting figure with the most pronounced improvement over the last fiscal year was net profit, which totalled €57 million, or a 33% increase on 2016. This was due to very strong financial results, as well as the financial coverage provided by the exchange rate risk management policy, which mitigated the negative effect previously mentioned in the EBITDA case.

Investment Plan 2016-2019 and international expansion

The company has already invested slightly less than €200 million, or 52% of its total planned investments, whose total value is €380 million; 70% of this has been in productive growth investments, most notably the construction and opening of a second Dekton® manufacturing plant, as well as new automated logistics facilities that will begin operations over the next few months.

In addition, during 2017, Cosentino Group also focused on the automation of existing factories for product diversification, as well as to increase production flexibility and response speed, and has implemented even more improvements to its environmental management as part of its maximum commitment to sustainability. All these investments were made at Cosentino’s main industrial park in Cantoria, Almeria (Spain), which is also the seat of its corporate headquarters. At present, the site has a total area of 2.3 million m².

The Group continues its strong commitment to internationalisation and geographical expansion across the world. Seven new Cosentino Centers were opened in 2017, scattered across countries such as the USA, Canada, Israel, Singapore, South Africa, Poland and the UAE. At the same time, the company opened two Cosentino Cities, spectacular showrooms located at the hearts of the world’s most important cities. One was the Group’s first City showroom in Spain, located in Madrid.

Job Creation

Thanks to these new facilities, the company closed 2017 with 140 own business units in 32 countries across five continents. For the next three years, the company is maintaining an ambitious growth plan in this regard, including the opening of 30 new business units, including Centers (full-service warehouses) and Cities (showrooms). This follows up on the company’s new and recent corporate commitment to inspire people through innovative spaces.

The aforementioned investments, in production as well as business and logistics, have been financed through a combination of own assets and outside financing (which grew 9%, or approximately €20 million, last year). Company debt has undergone positive changes, and the current debt ratio (net debt divided by EBITDA) is 1.5.

As in previous fiscal years, industrial and commercial growth has been accompanied by strong job growth, and the total number of Group employees at the end of 2017 totalled more than 4,000 people worldwide. Last year, Cosentino created 340 new jobs. Half of these, or 170 jobs, were in Spain. This figure adds to the 300 jobs the company created across the world in 2016.

Finally, the company is preparing for the coming years in accordance with an updated Strategic Plan that covers the period 2018-2020. This Strategic Plan involves speeding up the pace of investment, doubling down on the company’s commitment to digitalisation and new technologies in both production and sales to reinforce the competitiveness and leading position that guarantee sustainable growth. And in the midst of all this, we have not lost sight of the continuing Investment Plan, which is now facing its final stage. This stage is particularly focused on innovation and product development, as well as the automation of production processes.

*For further information: www.cosentino.com